Against curious decree-disputes; creation as alphabet of revelation
At length indeed and learnedly there are commonly inserted here dogmas concerning divine decrees and counsels, whose consideration, as it is hard and abstruse, so will be undertaken most well and safely of all a posteriori in their own places: lest we further divide the German churches already long enough divided by dangerous altercations concerning predestination, reprobation, providence, as some years past happened, alas, in neighboring Belgium.
But soberly and with great religion, without scrupulosity, we must think and speak concerning the Lords counsels and ways — Isaiah 55; Romans 11:33-34. Nothing here can flesh and blood, but all things are to be sought from the heavenly Fathers Apocalypse, which Genesis 1:1 God in the beginning and before all things made known through the act of CREATION of these heavens and this earth, which certainly is the revelation of revelations, and by its power embraces all the rest. This is the alphabet of every notion and action.
Latin
Prolixe quidem et erudite hic inseruntur vulgo dogmata de divinis decretis et consiliis, quorum consideratio, ut ardua et abstrusa est, ita a posteriori suis locis omnium optime et tutissime suscipietur: ne ecclesias Germanicas satis jam diu divulsas periculosis altercationibus de praedestinatione, reprobatione, providentia magis atque magis divellamus, atque dilaceremus, ut annis aliquot praeteritis in vicino nobis Belgio, pro dolor, accidit. Sobrie vero et magna cum religione, sine scrupulositate, de consiliis et viis Domini cogitandum et loquendum est nobis — Isa. LV; Rom. XI.33-34. Nihil hic caro et sanguis potest, sed omnia ex Apocalypsi Patris caelestis petenda sunt, quae Gen. I.1 Deus in principio et ante omnia patefecit per actum CREATIONIS horum caelorum et hujus terrae, quae certe revelatio revelationum est, et virtute sua omnes reliquas complectitur. Hoc est alphabetum omnis notionis et actionis.